quote:
They may be scientists but they cling to their findings cause they want to refute the creationism.
Having had some experience in planetary science (which involves explaining the evolution of the solar system and the various planets over millions and billions of years), I can assure your friend that no one wants to refute creationism. All anyone wants to do is find the most reasonable model that explains the data that they have.
-
quote:
They want to make a name for themselves and be famous.
Which can most easily be done by
refuting the dominant paradigm. Believe me, science that only confirms what everyone already expects is
boring; no one makes a name for themselves by publishing results that everyone already expects.
-
Look, science is by its nature an anarchistic enterprise. Scientists work for hundreds, even thousands, of different universities and research institutions, and each of these has its own hiring and retaining policies, independent of all the others. There is no single organization that approves or disapproves of any particular researcher.
These scientists publish in hundreds or even thousands of different journals and conferences, each of which has its own editorial policies and makes the decision to publish independently of all the other journals.
Funding is provided by hundreds of different public and private organizations, each of which makes its decisions independently of all the others.
If there were any truth to creationism, someone, somewhere is going to notice. That person will find a journal or conference somewhere in which to publish her findings. Other people are going to become aware of these results, and join the pro-creationist camp. Eventually, enough people would accept the creationist paradigm that they would be a significant presence in the scientific community.
Anyone who believes that creationism cannot make any headway because of bias in the system has no idea how science is done.
"Religion is the best business to be in. It's the only one where the customers blame themselves for product failure."
-- Ellis Weiner (quoted on the NAiG message board)